Powerful Prayer: Declaring Heavenly Realities

Sharing good news of great joy to all people.

Elation Church. This is week number three in

our series entitled Powerful Prayer. Everybody

say powerful prayer. You got to be with me this

morning. Say powerful. Say prayer. Right? Let's

say powerful again. Say powerful. Say it like

you mean it. Powerful. Powerful prayer. Amen.

I like this title because it, you know, it kind

of implies that there's a prayer that is powerful

for the Christian, right? There's a prayer that

is powerful, but it also conveys and like infers

that there's a prayer that is powerless. And

did you know as a Christian, you can pray and

it'd be powerless, okay? That's what we've been

talking about. We looked at what prayer is and

what prayer is not. I'm not going to do much

recap. Today stands alone, but I would encourage

you to go on our podcasts and YouTube, Facebook,

and you can re -watch those services. But I am

kind of building on what we've done in the past

two weeks. But like I said, today does stand

alone. But as I said, there is prayer that is

powerful and there is prayer that is powerless.

And unfortunately, I believe many Christians

are kind of in that latter category. They pray,

but they don't see results, right? Let's be honest.

Just because we're at church, let's not put on

our little church halo and act like, you know.

I believe many of us, even here this morning,

we pray and we don't see results. We pray, but

we don't experience power. And as we look at...

What the Bible has to say, when it talks about

power, and especially when Jesus prays, we see

something dramatically different than our day

-to -day experience, right? When Jesus prayed,

all of a sudden, he was receiving some power.

He was receiving some direction, right? He was

changed when he left that time with the Father.

And how many of us, we pray, we sit back and

we just rattle off, thank you God, love you God,

I need, I need, this is it, help me, help me,

help me, amen, bye. And then we wonder why our

prayers are powerless, right? What kind of fellowship

are we having? Like if Caitlin just came to me

and she just started talking. Now, she's not

like this. I know she's not in here, but I'm

not. She's not like this. But if Caitlin just,

every time I was around her, she would just da

-da -da -da -da -da -da. I need, I need, we need

to do this. You need, I need you to do this.

And then, you know, oh, I love you. That's great.

Yeah, yeah. You know, and she just keeps going

and going and going. And every once in a while,

I would sneak in. Well, what if we, and she would

just keep talking over me, right? What kind of

relationship would we have? Right? What kind

of fellowship would we have? Sometimes we treat

God this way. And I believe one of the reasons

why our prayer is powerless and can be powerless

at times is because we are praying and leaving

God completely out of it. And you might say,

well, how can we do that? Well, I'm acknowledging

that that's who I'm praying to. But do you realize

that... God just don't want you just to acknowledge

like who you're praying to and then give him

a bunch of lists and instructions. See, we often

want to pray at God, right? We're just praying

at him. Kind of like I'm talking at you this

morning, right? I'm in a position and I'm speaking

to you based upon some knowledge, some information,

right? And I'm sharing with you. Sometimes we

treat God that way. Here's my understanding of

the world around me. So I'm coming to you and

I'm telling you and I'm telling you and I'm telling

you. Bible says that he knows what you need before

you even ask it. He knows what you need before

you even come to him. So why do we pray? Often

prayer is not at God. It shouldn't be at God.

But prayer at its core is communicating with

him. It involves him. It's a two -way street

of open communication. Acts 17, 28, all the verses

that I'm reading today are out of the New Living

Translation. And in Acts 17, 28, it says this,

for in him, everybody say in him. Be a little

stronger, say in him. When we read these verses

that are in him, through him, by him in scripture,

they need to raise a red flag in us and we need

to start paying attention. Because there's a

lot of things and there's a lot of Christians

living a life, you know, powerless life because

they don't realize their position in Christ.

For in him, listen to this, for in him, we, the

church, say me, for in him, we live. and move

and exist. I learned this in the New King James.

So it's in him we live and move and have our

being, right? Maybe you've heard it that way.

For in him I live, in him I move, in him I exist.

What does this mean? That nothing should be done

for the Christian. Nothing should be done apart

from our position in him. It is foundational

for the Christian. It's not just something that

we step in and out of. And this is included in

our prayer life. For in him, we pray. In him,

I live, I move, I have my being. It's all grounded

and founded in him. And listen, church, we got

to start playing some game. When we're talking

with God, right? We should expect to see some

things. We should expect to see some change.

Because without power, without demonstration,

as we talked about the other week, without impact

and answers, direction and real change, why are

we praying? I'm sorry, I'm jumping this real

hard this morning. Growing up, I never knew like

the boundary of like, oh, you're supposed to

do this and then you're supposed to do this and

kind of build things. Like the first time I was

on a dirt bike, I was doing 50 miles an hour

over jumps with my friends. That's just who I

am. So we're just jumping in. I hope that's okay

this morning. You good? You good? Let's continue

on. Our prayer needs to be powerful. Demonstration

needs to follow. Impact needs to happen. Answers.

God wants to give you answers and direction and

you and I to experience real change because we've

been in the presence of the almighty King of

Kings and Lord of Lords. Amen? So if we are genuinely

communicating with God, we should expect to hear

him. Shouldn't just be a one -way thing. In his

presence, we should hear from him. We should

be empowered. We should be challenged. He corrects

those that he loves, right? So when we come to

him, there should be some things that kind of

the Holy Spirit kind of brings to our hearts

and our attentions and kind of, you know, checks

us on. Should challenge us. And also when we're

down, when we're in his presence praying, guess

what? He will encourage us. He's a great encourager.

But you've got to listen. You've got to be still

and know. Amen? When you're communicating with

God, you should expect to get answers. Many of

you want answers, but you're not willing to hear

for them. When we're communicating with God,

we should expect to get direction and we should

expect to be changed. Leave change because we've

been in his presence. And I want to give sort

of the cause of why this happens, why the Christian

sometimes experiences powerless prayer. Because

if your prayers are not being answered, listen,

it's not God's fault. It's not God's fault. It's

ours. Let's explain that a little bit. It's either

in our hearts, as we've seen, our hearts, our

methods of prayer, or the content of our prayers.

And they are originating in us instead of our

position in Him. See... We got to drastically

change our concept of what prayer looks like.

Our prayers should not originate in us. Because

you know what? Everything in you is not going

to be enough to take care of you. Right? Why

are we seeking a higher power if we're coming

to him just expecting, you know, what I already

know? Your prayers should originate in him. Amen.

James 4, 2 through 3 says this, and the Bible's

full of verses like this. Sometimes the Christian

just kind of wants to like throw him to the side

a little bit because our experience is different.

But it's important not to do that. Scripture

says here, you don't have what you want because

you don't ask God for it. Did I say that or is

that what scripture says? This is only one verse,

but I mean, we could go weeks and weeks on these

verses and get this. And even when you ask, you

don't get it. Why? Because your motives are all

wrong. So we can come to God in prayer and our

motives can be wrong. Our method can be wrong.

The content of our prayers, it can be wrong.

And we will not receive. And there's a lot of

things, like as we go through this series, we're

going to talk about them, that can hinder our

reception of his word and answered prayer. But

when Jesus prayed, and I said this earlier, when

Jesus prayed, he always got answers. Was he not

our example while he was here on earth, right?

He was our living example of how the Christian

day -to -day was supposed to be. And when Jesus

prayed, he always got answered. He always received

power. He always got direction. As we've looked

at in weeks past, Jesus, it says, he often went

away, pulled away from his disciples and the

world and all these things. He often pulled away.

in the early hours, and he would go off into

somewhere, sometimes climb a mountain even, to

just spend time. Do you think if it's essential

to Jesus, if it's important to Jesus, if it's

vital for Jesus to get a little bit of time away,

why do we act like, you know, I'm good, prayer's

the least priority of my day, right? For many

of us, for Jesus, it was essential. It was like,

you know what? Things are getting wild. Things

are kind of, I got to get away. It's time for

me to get away. I need direction. I need power.

I need answers. I need to go talk to the Father.

Because in Him, we live, we move, we have our

being. Jesus even admitted, He said that His

words were not His own. His works were not his

own. They were the Father working in him and

through him. He was saying what the Father revealed

him to say in that moment. Where did he get this?

Within constant fellowship with the Father. Within

constant communion and union with him. Prayer.

Working with him. And I believe we've been looking

for the past two weeks, we've been looking at

the Lord's Prayer. And I believe it boils down

to this. Jesus is teaching us how to tap in to

God's power. He's teaching us something. He's

not just telling us a list of words and phrases

that sound real spiritual. As we talked about

in week one, you know, we can be like... go into

King James English and be like, Thou is holiest

God in heaven above. We're so unworthy to receive

and thank you for your presence and all that,

you know. That's awful. Don't pray like that.

We can also just remember something, right? And

it's just, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed

be thy name. Okay, you know. And we think that

that's going to carry some weight, even though

it's not special to us, right? It has no meaning

to us. But Jesus here, as an example, his disciples

are coming to him. They're saying, teach us how

to pray, Master. This is found in Matthew and

Luke. And they're saying, teach us how to pray,

as John taught his disciples how to pray. Teach

us how to pray like that. It's not that they

didn't know how to pray. They didn't understand

what powerful prayer looked like. And Jesus was

walking in and praying something that they had

not experienced in their own life. And he's saying,

the disciples are coming to him saying, teach

us what is different. Show us how you're receiving.

Show us this direction and this power that you're

receiving to do these miracles, to do these things.

It's like something's different here. Tell us

what it is. And Jesus goes on to share the Lord's

prayer. Many of us have memorized. And to recap

a little, verse 9, Matthew 6, verse 9, Jesus

Matthew 6:9

said, pray like this. Pray like this. This word

prayer really stood out to me during this series.

I'm not even going to try to pronounce it. That

would just be dishonorable to everybody. But

it means this. It means to interact with the

Lord. By switching human desires for his wishes

as he imparts faith. I like that phrase. Do you

realize that faith is imparted to you? I want

you to think about this. This is important. Don't

miss it. The faith that pleases God. is imparted

to you by the power of the Holy Spirit. He brings

revelation, impartation of his word and knowledge

of his word to a greater extent than you've just

heard it. Right? Because faith is more than just

hearing. It's believing. And you need some help

to believe sometimes. for it to really get a

hold of you, for the word of God to sit in you

so much that you're just confident and can't

be shook by it. You need the Holy Spirit to bring

light on something that was otherwise not known.

Maybe you had heard it before in a church service

time and time again, but all of a sudden, boom!

The knowledge of God, the knowledge of the Spirit,

all of a sudden he just brings revelation to

a word that you've heard a thousand times. And

my friends, that's when faith begins. When you

know it. When you're confident in it. When it

can't be taken away from you. It's not just mental

agreement to a set of things. No, it is an inward

knowing, like passionate knowing, dogmatic knowing

of the word of God. Who he is, what he wants

to do for you. He imparts faith. It's a divine

persuasion. And then he says, pray like this.

Like this, meaning in this manner, in this way,

fashion, in accordance with this description,

are along this line. He's not saying pray this

every time you come to me, even though it is

about the heart of the matter, right? He's saying

pray like this. Therefore, he's giving us a formula

to tap into his power. He's given us revelation

here for those who would hear it. What the Spirit

wants to say. Spirit's working through God to

reveal the truth of his word, what the Father's

saying here. The Lord's Prayer, therefore, is

a pattern of God, a model for powerful prayer.

The memorized Lord's Prayer, as we saw in week

one, excuse me, the memorized prayer, as we saw

in week one, you know, they can easily become

meaningless and powerless repetition. Okay? It's

not that what it's saying is bad, but as we talked

about, words don't in themselves possess power

unless they're connected to the source. Right?

Because words are just meaningless. You can throw

them all together. You can teach a bird to say

the sinner's prayer, but that bird is not going

to heaven. He said the words. Many Christians

will sit in church and they'll say the sinner's

prayer and they think they're going to heaven.

You can't just mentally agree. It's not just

knowledge. It's the Spirit's revelation. Of what

God did on the cross. And the weight of the sin

that was upon him. And it's confessing him as

Lord. You know, we wouldn't just naturally do

that in our carnal flesh. Submit ourselves to

him and yield ourselves to him. We do that when

the Holy Spirit comes on the inside of us. convicts

us, right? Not condemns us, but convicts us of

our sin, right? Last week, we looked at the first

two phrases, our Father in heaven, may your name

be kept holy. And it's talking about praise,

right? It's acknowledging, esteeming, and honoring

God. His name being precious to you and carrying

weight because when we know who God is, right?

When we know his name, we know his character,

we know his will, we know what he wants to do

in the earth. And it's time for Christians not

to be ignorant anymore of the God that they serve.

Everyone, Tries to tell you what God is and what

he's like. And if you're ignorant of the word,

you're going to fall for it every time. Because

it sounds good. If it didn't sound good, we wouldn't

take hold of it. The lies of the enemy. The deceit.

Right? It sounds right. Sounds real good. Makes

you feel good too. Come on, we need to know his

name. We need to know God. My children, listen,

my sheep, hear my voice. I'm going to start running

and slapping some of y 'all. Come on, my sheep,

hear my voice. The sheep know his shepherd. If

you'd never heard the voice of God, you are not

a Christian. Come on. Too many Christians act

like, well, I can't hear God. I don't know. I

don't know if he's there. I don't know if he's

listening. What? Help us, Jesus. We need to know

God. I'm going to get some water. That was a

long introduction. Hallelujah. Let's go. We're

going to continue this week in verse 10. It says

this, May your kingdom come soon. May your will

be done on earth as it is in heaven. These are

powerful words. Powerful words. And I want us

to see this is God teaching us. He's saying pray

like this, in this manner. When we come to God,

We are declaring something. Do you see that?

We're not just like asking something. We're declaring

something. Be done. Now, if we look, Matthew

was originally written in Greek, and the New

Living Translation is more of like a thought

-for -thought translation, and so that's why

I want us to get kind of just the bare bones.

as close equivalence to the English language

as we can out of the Greek to the English. And

it says this because I believe it carries like

a greater weight when we look at just the Greek

word for word, no filler words added. It's just,

here's what it says, okay? Because sometimes

those little added things can kind of soften

it a little bit. sometimes help us with understanding

the concept. But in this case, I want you to

see, listen, I want you to see these words, these

Greek words to the nearest English equivalent,

just word by word. Listen to this. Come, the

kingdom of you. Be done, the will of you. As

in heaven, they parenthesis because that's not

there. So, also. That's pretty strong. It's pretty

strong. This word come, get this, we're going

to break it down each word. This word come here

means to come. It also means to go. To come and

to go the kingdom. And I want you to think about

this powerful prayer then. recognizes that your

voice is the gateway for God's kingdom to come,

to go in your life. The kingdom of God is his

heavenly rule and reign, the eternal rule and

reign of God. And Jesus is saying, come. He's

telling you and I to say, come, kingdom. Why?

Is his rule and reign being done in the earth?

He gave us dominion over the earth, right? And

what we're doing in prayer is we're saying, come,

go, have your way, your rule, your reign in my

life. Come, I submit myself to you. I yield to

your spirit. Come. Come the kingdom of you. Your

voice, listen. God works alongside us. That's

why he sent his spirit to indwell in us. He wants

to use you. And his plans and purposes in the

earth. You have a purpose for being here. You

have a purpose for breathing. You have a purpose

for living each day. Not just to get by. Not

just to do your little petty life things that

are trivial things that are vapor in the wind.

That's, you know, here today, gone tomorrow,

not going to matter in eternity. God has eternal

purposes for each person in this room. And you

know what? In order to walk in them, you're going

to have to start declaring, using your voice

to usher in the kingdom of God. Do you realize

that everything that was created from something

that was unseen. Everything that is came from

something that was not. And when it happened,

it was delivered and created by the voice. That's

why life and death is in the power of the tongue.

Right? When Jesus spoke, boom, life came to be.

Time, space, matter in an instant came to be.

Your voice is a gateway to God's kingdom to come

and to go in your life. When you speak of his

rule and his reign, It physically transforms.

The spiritual transforms the natural. That's

how heavenly things, spiritual things, come into

our existence, is when we speak. Everything's

in a state of motion. When you speak, it physically

moves the things around it. The sound bounces

off and comes back. It reflects it. It's physically

impacting your space. If I talk to a plant and

I'm very kind, guess what? It's going to grow.

If I play heavy metal music, it's going to die.

I'm not saying not to listen to heavy metal music,

but consider it. You do with that what you will.

I used to listen to heavy metal music. I can

say that. It impacts you, right? The sound actually

impacts you, and I'm not going to go any much

further than that. But listen, your voice, you

need to realize that when you're praying, when

you're communing with God, listen, your voice,

your voice is either ushering in the kingdom

or it's ushering in your fear. It's ushering

in yourself and your human. you know, understanding

or it's ushering in his rule and his reign in

your life. Continuing, be done. I like this word,

be done the will of you. Because his will is

not being done in the earth. His will is not

always being done in the earth. It's going to

take Christians speaking the word. Following

the Spirit to bring his will about in the earth.

He's a gentleman. He's not usurping your mind,

you know. It's not Jesus take the wheel and all

of a sudden, right? Be done, this word here.

Get this, to become. To come into being. to happen,

to be made, to be done, continuing to emerge,

become, transition from one point or realm, condition,

to another. The kingdom of God is where? In heaven,

right? The will of God is being done where? In

heaven. And we're asking it to be done, to transition

from this heavenly realm, to come into our temporary

one. Signifies a change in condition, a state,

a place, coming into being, manifestation, implying

motion, movement, or growth. Powerful prayer

then, listen, commands God's will to emerge from

eternity and become evident, to show itself in

your time, in your physical space. Oh, church,

I hope you're getting this. That's what Jesus

is saying. Be done, your will. Come, your kingdom.

As in what? As in heaven. Also upon the earth.

God's wanting to do heavenly things in the natural

earth. And it's going to take your voice to usher

them in. to bring them to pass in your life.

It's going to take communion, fellowship with

God, praying things that are not just in your

mind and in your understanding, but praying things

that the Spirit reveals to you, that the Spirit

helps you to know. That's what's going to have

the power to change the world, to reach four

corners, to reach your family, to reach your...

extended family that you don't even care about.

What's going to take? It's going to take you

getting in the presence of God, being still,

and knowing Him. And declaring heavenly realities

to emerge, to be created in the earth. What is

heaven? Heaven is the reality of God's will.

It's the reality of God's will. It's a place

of beauty, perfection, the Bible talks about.

It's where believers live in eternal joy, peace,

love, life, and presence of God. Revelation 21

.4 talks about that it's a place with no death,

no sickness, no suffering, no tears, no pain,

no crying, or sorrow. Come, the kingdom. Be done,

your will. What are we saying? If these things

don't exist in heaven, where his will is being

done, I want his will done in my life. I don't

know about you, but I want the will of God to

be done in my life. I want the kingdom to come.

I'm going to take a hold of it whether you don't.

You can stay here. You can live the life that

you say, or you can start declaring the kingdom

things, the heavenly things. Because I'm tired

of this world and its death and its corruption.

I'm tired of it. I don't live in this world.

Come on. I live in it. Excuse me. I live in this

world, but I don't live of this world. That means

the things of this world, listen, they're not

on me. They're not of me. I'm living for something

higher. I live in a heavenly reality that doesn't

get moved or displaced by earthly tribulation,

by earthly wickedness, by earthly corruption.

We're called to rise above it. And you're not

going to experience that unless you do as Jesus

did and climb the mountain in the spirit. Listen,

climb that mountain and spend time with a heavenly

God. It doesn't say some ways like in heaven.

It doesn't say maybe this is like a little too

much. You know, maybe it's like a dialed down.

Earth is some dialed down version of what heaven

looks like for the believer. Earth looks like

a dialed down version of like what heaven looks

like. It's not saying that. It says as in. Just

like. In the same way. in the same manner in

heaven as it is in the earth. Amen. Powerful

prayer then declares heaven's realities, God's

perfect will to be done, to emerge, to be evident,

to show itself and become real in the earth,

our reality, our time and our space and our lives

and our families. Amen. This nation and this

world is waiting on Christians to wake up. Start

speaking about not all the crap that's going

on. Yes, I said crap. You're welcome. Stop speaking

about the crap and posting about the crap that's

going on in the world. Come on. Come on. We need

to start speaking the kingdom realities. Speaking

things be as though they are in heaven. Because

this world is not your home. We're passing through.

Amen. We need to get about the kingdom business.

Amen. Powerful prayer then, listen, creates an

opening for God to move in the earth. God wants

to do so much more. When Jesus went down, he's

like, you know, God wanted to do so much more.

They just wouldn't believe. He wanted to do so

much more. Jesus wanted to do so much more in

his home village, but they wouldn't accept him.

And I feel like sometimes he's looking at us

who should be called his own, and they just don't

accept it. They don't believe it. Matthew 6,

11. Sometimes we separate these things out, but

God is making, Jesus is making very serious declarations

here. And he's saying this, and I'm done. He's

saying, give us today the food we need. That's

what it reads in the NLT. I want you to understand

that God cares about everyday needs. Don't let

anyone convince you otherwise. God cares about

everyday needs, and he teaches us that we should

pray about them. And he also teaches us how we

should pray about them. Okay? And that's where

we're going to finish up today. Listen, when

we look at the direct English equivalents, It

says this, the bread of us daily grant us today.

The bread of us daily grant us today. Daily bread,

many theologians feel that this is reference

to God's promised provision of manna, which was

given every day in the desert while... The Israelites

were roaming in the wilderness. There was a provision

out of heaven each day. Manna would fall to the

ground. Quail would fall to the ground. And they

would just be able to go gather it. And it was

actually more than enough for them. But there

was a daily supply. Everybody say daily supply.

There was a daily supply. And bread is often

viewed as the supply of substance to meet physical

need. That's what bread is. Our white, bleached,

enriched flour, it doesn't really have everything

that you need. You can't just live on that. But

historically, bread had every nutrient that you

need to sustain your life. Okay? That's why a

lot of people are going back and grinding their

own flour and doing all that kind of stuff because

in those first two weeks, I'm like really into

bread, I'm sorry. In those first two weeks, when

you make that bread out of that roast, it will

sustain you and you can live off of a loaf of

bread and be completely healthy, have every nutrient

that you need. Bread in the Bible refers to three

different things. It refers to the physical,

literal sustenance. and provision supplied by

God. It also is referencing a spiritual supply

that's available in God. When we think of his

grace and his mercy, which are new each and every

day. Amen? His grace is more than enough, right?

He's more than enough for you. It's a spiritual

supply of all those things. And bread is often

seen as the presence of God. In the tabernacle,

it would be the show bread, and it represented

his presence among his people. Bread's important.

And Jesus here, without understanding, he's saying

the bread of us daily. He's saying the bread,

the complete physical and spiritual supply. Listen,

who brought the bread in the wilderness? Who

brought the bread? Who has the manna? Right?

It's God. All these things are from God. He is

our source. The bread, the complete physical

and spiritual supply that God has made available

each day, the bread of us daily, and he's declaring

that it be given, and he's given it to us. Listen.

He's given it to us, making it ours. The bread

of us, meaning something that belongs to me,

right? He's given it to us. He has supplied it

and therefore makes it ours. So when we come

to God in prayer, listen, we're not asking for

something. Getting ahead of myself. We're not

asking for something that he's already supplied.

Something that he's already given us. He's already

made available to us. His joy, his peace, his

presence, his forgiveness is available to us.

But also, when we look at bread, he's not just

saying those things. For some reason, we can

take a hold of those spiritual things at times.

But then we think that God somehow changes his

mind about the physical things, about the actual

bread on your table. Look, I grew up in the ministry.

There's been many times where all of a sudden

the bread just arrived on my table. Where living

by faith all of a sudden meant, God, you better

show up. If your word's true, it better happen.

You supply my daily need. I'm standing on you.

I'm standing on your promise. And things would

happen. Our daily needs would be met. The physical

needs, not just the spiritual needs. Because

God cares about that. If you care about the physical

needs of your children, do you not think that

God cares more about your physical need than

your children? You know, come on. Like, he cares.

Amen? And what is he saying? Is he saying, oh,

God, would you, God, please give us this bread.

It's tough down here. Oh, God. Help me now. Come

on. He says something. Grant us today. Grant

us today. This is not begging. This comes from

a place of knowing it is yours. It is a request

of appropriation. It's asking for something because

it's important to ask. There's plenty of verses

all throughout Scripture talking about asking.

But there's a difference between asking for something

that you don't have or asking for something that

belongs to you. This is why the heart and the

method and the content of your prayer matters.

When we pray prayers of our position in Him,

we can stand in faith that He will supply my

need. But if I'm just standing in a position

of my own ability and my own self, and I'm saying,

God, please give me something. I know you have

something. I know you can. I don't question your

ability, but I'm just like, I need it. You know,

it's like you're in that spot. You're not going

to receive it. You have to know God is your source.

You have to know that he is the bread. Not only

the bread of life, but he is the physical need,

you know, embodied in human form. His body was

broken. Listen, his bread was broken. He came

for us. It's a physical thing. And God wants

to do physical things in your life. He's enough.

Kayla and I, we recently... bought a car. I just

want you to get this in your heads. I'm going

to share two examples. Recently, we bought a

car. We were at the dealership. They got to have

everything, your mother's maiden name, your blood

sample, all these kind of things. You're signing

all this paperwork. We put in the down payment.

We go through all the hoopla, and it's like,

whoa, yeah. Let's go take a picture. We traded

in Caitlin's old Mustang, and we got a car. We

got good money for it. It was great. Great story

there. But anyways. when we get out to the car,

like I said, they were, oh, stand with your old

car in pose, and then stand with your new car

in pose, and okay, now get in it. We'll take

a picture like you're driving, you know? It's

so silly. It's so stupid. But, you know, you're

kind of in that moment, like the adrenaline's

pumping, and you're just like, yeah, oh, yeah.

Like, we'll ever look at that picture again.

Like, that's ridiculous. But there was a point

in time I realized they were like, crank it up.

Let's hear it. I'm like, it's a Kia. What are

you talking about, crank it up? It's going to

do something. It sounds like an old man farting.

Anyways, sorry, I went too far. Ran it in. Composure.

Listen, there was a point in time when I was

like, I need the key. You took my car. You took

those keys. And I'm like, I'm just standing out

here in the parking lot. I'm like, where's my

key? So I looked at the man and I said, I need

the key. Give me the key. I wasn't begging, you

know. I wasn't begging. I wasn't going, oh, please,

kind sir, will you please bestow upon me the

key that I so rightfully deserve? No. I said,

give me the key. It's my car, you know. I put

the thing, I signed in blood, you know, it's

my car. And then he gives me the key and then

told me have a good day. He acted like my best

friend for like the hour and then now he's just

gone. It was amazing how that happened. But that's

a good example of there's a difference between

asking when you know it's yours. When you're

asking from your position of who you are in Christ

and what's available to you, you're speaking

the authority that he's given to you is way different

than saying, God, come fix my thing. I'm going

to sit back and you just do your thing. I have

faith. I believe. Yeah, right. Another example.

Another example, debit card. Dad thought of this.

I thought it was really great. We were going

over and he was like, this is what you need.

I was like, yeah, this is right. Listen, when

I went to put the down payment on the card, right,

and I go, I take out my debit card and I place

it on the little beep machine, whatever that

thing's called. It just goes beep like that.

And somehow, somehow the money, Think about it.

This is crazy. When you start thinking and, like,

considering, like, the technology we got going

on, when you place your card on the little machine,

it beeps. And that beep signifies that it's taking

something that I know is mine, listen, in a different

realm, in a different place. I don't even know.

And all of a sudden, I'm laying it on there.

I'm saying, I know this is mine. I'm going to

pay for it. I know I have this in the bank, and

I'm going to put it on the scanner, and boom,

boom. The money comes from some mysterious place,

and then all of a sudden is right here and is

supplying the need that I had in that moment

because I put a demand on it. I made a declaration

on it. I said, this is mine. I know I have it,

and boom, it's there, and it takes care of it.

I ask for it. I say, grant me the daily bread

because I know that it's available to me. I know

that he supplies my needs according to his riches

in glory. That he takes care of me in grand style.

That if he cares for the birds, if he cares for

the lilies, how much more does your heavenly

father care about your need? Powerful prayer

then is our lips saying what's been given and

revealed to us by the Spirit. Something that's

in you. Something you believe. Something you

know. Powerful prayer then sees an image, listen,

sees an image of reality through the lens of

God's Word being fulfilled in your life. Coming

to pass. In our life. Our daily needs. Being

supplied. Amen. Amen. So answered prayer then.

Is not man's idea. It's God's idea. And listen.

Every prayer. And I'm done. Listen please. Every

prayer. The secret to powerful prayer. is that

prayer needs to be initiated in him. It originates

in him and who he is and his name and his character

and what he's made available to us. Every prayer,

listen, every prayer that is initiated by him

will be answered by him. Every prayer that is

revealed to you by the Holy Spirit and you declare

it, be so in your life, it will create that reality

for you. God's will, His plan, the heavens will

come to the earth and manifest themselves in

your life in a way that no eye has seen, in a

way that no ear has heard. It's God's will. Amen?

Amen. Powerful prayer is through faith. It's

through faith in what God has already provided

by grace. It's so simple. Don't make this hard.

Through faith in what God has already provided

by grace. And it's declaring that our reality

be according to his kingdom. When Mary said,

be it unto me according to your word, there was

a creation that began in her. God started to

do something that radically changed her life.

But it was by faith that she said, let it be.

Let it be. According to your kingdom, your heavenly

will, and your daily work. This online worship

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